Iraqi-American-Blogger: The War In Is Not Over

By Lisa Kellmna

Despite President Obama’s assurance last week that all American troops will be out of Iraq by the end of the year, Iraqi-American blogger, Raed Jarrar, in an interview today, insisted while this will help Iraq move forward, America will continue to have an obtrusive presence .

Jarrad and those in Iraq believe the war will not end until military and non military American forces erase their footprint in Iraq completely.

By the end of 2011, The U.S. Department of Defense will remove the 40,000 troops still stationed in Iraq, shut all U.S. military bases and hand them over to the Iraqis, leaving only 160 service members in the Iraqi Embassy as part of the Office of Security Cooperation.  

The U.S. Department of State, on the other hand, plans on doubling its personnel from 8,000 to 16,000, half of whom will be armed, in order to train Iraqi soldiers and government members and provide basic aid.

However, training is not the issue argued Jarrar.

“Iraqis and neighboring countries view the Iraqi government and armed forces as puppets of a foreign occupation and legitimacy will not be brought to them by the U.S. presence,” Jarrar said.

Jarrar acknowledged Iraq’s broken military and political system, but emphasized America’s military presence has not nor will ever be part of the solution.

According to Jarrar, to help Iraqis, America needs to cease its military and non military intervention in Iraq.  Those in Iraq who have committed crimes and contributed to Iraq’s downfall need to be held responsible, and the U.S. needs to compensate Iraqis for the destruction it has caused since first arriving.

“The vast majority of solutions will come from within Iraq, by Iraqis, and for Iraqis, things that foreigners cannot and should not attempt to fix,” said Jarrar.  

Tax Watchdogs Pitch Defense Cuts

By Mike Hothi

A panel led today by a group of government watchdogs proposed a series of defense spending cuts that they argued would not threaten the nation’s level of national security.

One suggestion was to defund the Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS). MEADS is a program that is designed to replace the aging Patriot systems in the United States, Germany and Italy. Patriot systems are surface-to-air missiles that are used to destroy aircraft or other missiles.

“The Army doesn’t want the project,” said Taxpayers Protection Alliance President David Williams. “There is no reason that the Pentagon can’t cancel the program as soon as possible.”

Another proposal was to prevent funding to General Electric’s efforts to create an affordable substitute for current jet fighters. President Obama has openly criticized funding for the alternate engine.

“The three billion dollar alternate engine will siphon away much needed defense dollars that could be spent protecting American lives,” Williams stated.

The Department of Defense stopped funding the alternate engine program in March but a House Armed Services subcommittee passed legislation requiring the Pentagon to extend funding if it were asked by the developer for more money.

Today’s discussion took place hours before the new Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction was scheduled to hold another meeting. The committee is tasked with formulating a plan to shrink the federal deficit by $1.5 trillion over the next ten years. Failure by the committee to do so would result in a series of automatic cuts to domestic and defense spending equal to that $1.5 trillion target.

DoD Official Assures Skeptical McCain On START

By Rob Sanna - Talk Radio News Service

Multiple members of the Senate Armed Services Committee today expressed deep concerns over elements of the new START Treaty, saying they have doubts regarding the trustworthiness of Russia.   

Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) cited a Russian unilateral statement, which said the nation would pull out of the treaty if there is any build up in U.S. missile defense. McCain also pointed to a statement issued by U.S. officials promising to deploy missile defense to protect against nuclear attack. 

“I still don’t know how you reconcile those two statements,” McCain told Dr. James N. Miller, Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense under Pentagon chief Robert Gates.

Miller replied that the current U.S. missile defense system is far from a threat to Russia.

“We have 30 ground to air interceptors, we have a long way to go before we have any capability that’s close to affecting the strategic stability of the balance. They will have over 1000 warheads with new START.”

Miller praised the treaty, arguing that it will promote stability and transparency within U.S-Russian strategic relations. He added that it would allow the U.S to deploy non-nuclear global strike capabilities.

New START would not affect the U.S.’ ability to renew and rebuild nuclear enterprise, nor would it affect the ability to improve ballistic missile defense capabilities, Miller added.

Contractors In Afghanistan May Need More Time, New Teaching Models

by Julianne LaJeunesse- University of New Mexico

The Congressionally-mandated Commission on Wartime Contracting held a hearing Friday on the issues that arise due to paid contractors training Afghani police and military forces. During the question and answer period, the issue of responsibility was one that neither the United States nor Afghanistan could claim to own, at least according to the witnesses.

During the hearing, Defense Department Assistant Inspector General Kenneth Moorefield said that contractors bring important skill sets to Afghan soldier training, but admitted that because of the current model of service, contractors may not be providing as much help as they could.

“It was our view then [September 2009], and our recommendation in the report, that tour lengths be extended to a minimum of one year for all military services,” Moorefield said, in reference to a DoD report on contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“In addition, I noted in my remarks that contracting representatives had been serving only three to six month tours, which created less than stability in their carrying out their oversight responsibilities.”

Moorefield added that the value of “getting to know your counterparts is a very challenging process... and developing a relationship is everything.”

Developing relationships has been a problem Moorefield said, particularly because of cultural and competency differences between Afghani and U.S. troops.

The assistant inspector said that members of the Afghani police and the Afghanistan National Security Forces don't share the same sense of responsibility as U.S. military servicemen do, and emphasized that the learning methods aren't the same, which he says, is a recipe for training difficulties.

The U.S. capacity to train the Afghan police was also questioned, particularly because of the previous resource emphasis placed on the Afghan military.

The responsibility of managing contracted military services, as far as those committed to training Afghan police, is in the process of switching hands, moving from the State Department to the Department of Defense.

David Johnson, the assistant secretary of the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement said the success of a full transition between the the DoD and State Department will be largely dependent on who is awarded the next contracting agreement, but added, "I think the plan is largely in place, but in order to have a plan where one partner is handing a task to another, you have to have another partner... but all of the things have been done to prepare, the inventories and things of that nature."

DOD Says If Iraqi Elections Go Smooth, Troops Come Home And Scrap Equipment Stays There

By Julianne LaJeunesse, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service

The Department of Defense Undersecretary for policy Michele Flournoy met with Congressmen for the second time in the past few months Wednesday, addressing some of the changes Iraq will face if U.S. troops are able to successfully follow President Obama's recently reiterated commitment to withdraw combat troops from Iraq by 2012.

Flournoy said that the January presidential election in Iraq looks promising, but conceded that if the plans don't go forward, future troop withdrawals aren't concrete.

"The drawdown plan that we have is conditions-based and it creates multiple decision points for reevaluating and if necessary, changing our plans, based on developments on the ground," Flournoy said during a hearing with the House Armed Services Committee.

She added that Iraq's Council of Representatives still has, in the DOD's opinion, another week or two to agree on an elections law before the January elections will be considered jeopardized. However, if the planned elections do run smoothly in Iraq, the DOD has plans to sell "scrap" military equipment to the Iraqi Security Forces.

Blue Dog Coalition member U.S. Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Miss.) expressed concerns about the plan, saying after Hurricane Katrina, his state had a "desperate need for generators" and warned that "something like Katrina is going to happen again, whether it's man-made, or the hand of God."

Taylor challenged the panel of witnesses, asking "to what extent are you taking those things that the military says they don't need anymore and putting them on line... and to what extent are you making those things available to cities, states, and counties?"

Flournoy and Alan Estevez, Acting Deputy Defense Undersecretary for Logistics and Material Readiness, said the goods sold to the ISF would be screened for U.S. need, to which Estevez responded: "the Department, in coordination with the General Services Administration, which is responsible for the transfer of excess property to state and local entities, has established a process that would allow state and local entities the opportunity to screen excess property in Iraq, prior to it being transferred to the Iraqi government."

Estevez added that the property is likely unusable by the states because of their foreign volt specifications but Taylor requested access to the list anyway.